Bezek, the largest telecommunications company in Israel, has a new commercial that pokes fun at American Jews. It really isn’t that funny, although I am sure that somebody will say that this reflects more Israeli trashing of diaspora Jews. The commercial depicts an American, the Israeli entertainer Gido Gov, who had left Israel for America. Upon [...]
Joseph Cedar, the director of Footnote, is interviewed in the New York Times. Tomorrow the five nominees for the category of Best Foreign-Language Film will be announced. Q. What made you want to explore this particular world of Talmudic scholarship? A. In the beginning I was working with a story about a father and son [...]
One of the most important groups in the history of Israeli music is החלונות הגבוהים (“The High Windows“). The group consisted of Arik Einstein, Shmulik Krauss, and Josie Katz. Their one and only album, which was released in 1967, had a lasting affect on Israeli music. Since the traditional Torah reading cycle is finishing up [...]
It seems that as of late almost everyone, including the Hillary Clinton, has been talking about women in Israel. Whether it is women in the army, on advertisements, or the gym at the Technion. While there are definitely misogynistic Israelis and much that could be improved, I think that many people have an over simplified [...]
Jeffrey Goldberg triumphantly blogged that: News from Goldblog Headquarters: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered his country’s Ministry of Immigrant Absorption to immediately shut down its ridiculous Diaspora-bashing ad campaign, which was meant to guilt Israeli expatriates in America into going home. I first wrote about this campaign here; the original post prompted Israel’s [...]
Here are some funny parodies of the videos discussed here. I also did a little searching and the videos were skewered for different reasons by almost every Israeli media outlet online when they were released in September: NRG, Globes, Walla, The Marker. The reaction of a number of Israelis living abroad varied from “You can’t [...]
One only has to look at today’s Jerusalem Post to see a number of articles about the problematic relationship between Israelis and religion, and between groups of Israelis that are found in different places when it comes to religious observance, belief, etc. But, there is also another side of the coin. Israel’s Channel Two had [...]
On Dec. 12 there is going to be a conference at Beit ha-Tenuah ha-Kibbutzit in Tel Aviv about the role of Judaism and synagogues on the kibbutz. There are an increasing number of synagogues that are being built on kibbutzim that don’t belong to the Religious Kibbutz Movement. Some of these synagogues are being built [...]
A classic and beloved Israeli song about love is עטור מצחך (“Your Forehead is Ornamented [in Black Gold]“) [lyrics/translation]. The words were written by Avraham Ḥalfi, the music by Yoni Richter, and it was sung by Arik Einstein. The song describes the love of a man for a woman. Recently it became known that the [...]
From Haaretz: The ministerial committee on ceremonies and symbols said this week the wording of the Yizkor memorial prayer for fallen soldiers should return to its original version at state ceremonies. The prayer recited at the official state ceremony on Mount Herzl that marks the end of Memorial Day and the start of the Independence [...]
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